The Canterbury Patagonia team lifted their game for the second game on tour, but so did the opposition, Olimpo.  Newly promoted to the top Division, the Olimpo team had some talented young guards and several older players who provided leadership to the group. Both teams lost their first outings so were desperate to get some points in the round robin or Spanish translation “wheel”.

 

Canterbury started slowly compared to the Olimpo squad with their guards getting some good long range looks early and attacking the basket in transition to build a 12-2 lead.

Joel Stratford and Lionel Hopgood kept Canterbury in the game with some accurate outside shooting and took control at the end of the 1^st Quarter to lead 23 - 19.

 

In the second quarter Canterbury began to assert themselves against the smaller Olimpo players on the inside and began to foul regularly. Unfortunately too many foul shots were not converted and several missed point blank attempts lead to a momentum shift with Olimpo’s guards converting on some exciting fastbreak finishing.

Olimpo won the quarter 17-11 and take a 36 – 34 lead into halftime.

 

In the third quarter Olimpo upped their defense to again stifle Canterbury’s scoring opportunities. The foul shooting woes continued and again Olimpo won the quarter 21 – 14 to expand their lead to 57-48.

Canterbury rallied behind some outstanding play from Rusty Thomson and Joel Stratford while Brent Fisher and Lionel Hopgood began to dominate the inside. Canterbury tied the game with 1 minute to play at 71-71 but could not sustain the momentum as Olimpo made some critical plays down the stretch and in the end made their foul shots while Canterbury didn’t.

Photos of day two of the tournament can be found by clicking here

Final 23/19, 11,17, 14,21, 26/20  74 - 77

 

Scorers were:

Canterbury 74, Joel Stratford 18pts, Rusty Thomson 18 pts, Brent Fisher 12pts and Lionel Hopgood 9pts 12 boards and 4 blocks

Olimpo 77, Gaston 21pts , Victoria 13pts , Sanchez 12pt Arens 12pts